SSA, mid-day meal office staff demand regularisation

Members of the Sarv Sikhya Abhiyan Mid-Day Meal Daftari (Office) Karamchari Union, Punjab, submitted a demand letter to Aam Aadmi Party state president and Cabinet Minister Aman Arora, urging immediate regularisation of office staff in the Education Department, on the lines of the 8,886 teachers who were made permanent earlier. The union members questioned why bureaucrats were defying orders issued by the highest authorities in the state. “Is Punjab’s bureaucracy beyond the reach of the Chief Minister, Finance Minister, and even the party president?” they asked Arora, pointing out the repeated failure of departments to act on clear directives. Finance Minister Harpal Cheema, they noted, had promised the regularisation of office employees within a month during a meeting on November 6 last year and reiterated the commitment in another meeting on December 26. However, officials from the Finance and Personnel Departments have allegedly ignored those instructions. The union further stated that Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann had issued written orders for regularisation as far back as April 21, 2022. Cabinet Minister Aman Arora too had issued directions to officers on multiple occasions, but no progress has been made. According to union leaders Shobhit Bhagat and Gagandeep Sharma, the government formally accepted their demands on March 14, 2024. Furthermore, the Advocate General of Punjab gave a legal go-ahead for the regularisation of these employees, eliminating any legal barriers. The delegation also raised the issue of unpaid wages, stating that employees’ salaries for December and January were unjustly deducted. They demanded the immediate release of the withheld payments. In response, Aman Arora assured the union that he would soon arrange a panel meeting between the employees and Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann. He also directed Education Department officials to expedite the process of regularisation and to release the pending salaries without delay.

Jalandhar